Social media has changed the rules for engaging patients. Eye care practices, and healthcare practices in general, are increasingly harnessing the power of platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter to generate discussion, build their brand, and sell their services. Virtually every sector of business is feeling the impact of social media.
So how do you build your presence effectively on social media?
Start with your brand. What is your brand?
Your brand is much more than your name and logo. Your brand is defined by the way your company is perceived by its clients, patients, customers, vendors, etc. Social media is a good tool to develop and have a voice in how your brand is perceived.
How you want your patients and potential patients to view your practice. Are you the cutting-edge practice that has the latest advancements in eye care? Are you the fun, community practice where generations of families have been patients? You need to decide who you are to your patients and find a voice that resonates with that.
For example, do you post funny eye jokes on your FB and Instagram pages for your young patients? Is your photography and voice in your posts geared toward the young school-aged person, LASIK aged person, or cataract aged person, or all of these? Do you want to appeal to the family or just the adults? The eye care practice should be actively thinking about how they “look and sound” to their social media visitors, and if it doesn’t give the visitor the right perspective, it needs to change.
Facebook and Instagram
In our experience, the #1 lead generator for our eye care clients has been Facebook and Instagram. Facebook has far outranked Google in delivering leads that turn to patients. Why? Because all people have eyes and most people are on Facebook. We spend a lot of time posting informative videos, blogs, practice events, free consultations and more on Facebook and Instagram. We find it a great place to respond to pricing questions and referring people to our practice website to answer health questions.
Facebook and Instagram advertising has an excellent ROI for our eye care client’s practices. Not only do we get qualified leads, but we also build the Facebook and Instagram visitors and followers from advertising. We don’t specifically advertise to get followers, but we invite those that react to our ads to follow us and many do. This also gives us the benefit of posting our services directly to those that we know have an interest in the practice, thereby saving money by not having to advertise as much.
Instagram skews younger than FB, so plan accordingly. You want to post as much as you can to these platforms. Check every day to see if you can respond to comments on your posts or ads that you have running. Remember, people can comment on your advertising in FB and Instagram, so don’t ignore them.
Always be helpful! Don't sell too hard. People want to be entertained, informed, and feel a connection with your practice. Test out the posts for posts that resonate and write more in that tone or on that subject. It may seem overwhelming in the beginning, but continued effort and a willingness to experiment are likely to get your practice surprisingly good results.
Social media has changed the rules for engaging patients. Eye care practices, and healthcare practices in general, are increasingly harnessing the power of platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter to generate discussion, build their brand, and sell their services. Virtually every sector of business is feeling the impact of social media.
So how do you build your presence effectively on social media?
Start with your brand. What is your brand?
Your brand is much more than your name and logo. Your brand is defined by the way your company is perceived by its clients, patients, customers, vendors, etc. Social media is a good tool to develop and have a voice in how your brand is perceived.
How you want your patients and potential patients to view your practice. Are you the cutting-edge practice that has the latest advancements in eye care? Are you the fun, community practice where generations of families have been patients? You need to decide who you are to your patients and find a voice that resonates with that.
For example, do you post funny eye jokes on your FB and Instagram pages for your young patients? Is your photography and voice in your posts geared toward the young school-aged person, LASIK aged person, or cataract aged person, or all of these? Do you want to appeal to the family or just the adults? The eye care practice should be actively thinking about how they “look and sound” to their social media visitors, and if it doesn’t give the visitor the right perspective, it needs to change.
Facebook and Instagram Leads
In our experience, the #1 lead generator for our eye care clients has been Facebook and Instagram. Facebook has far outranked Google in delivering leads that turn to patients. Why? Because all people have eyes and most people are on Facebook. We spend a lot of time posting informative videos, blogs, practice events, free consultations and more on Facebook and Instagram. We find it a great place to respond to pricing questions and referring people to our practice website to answer health questions.
Facebook and Instagram advertising has an excellent ROI for our eye care client’s practices. Not only do we get qualified leads, but we also build the Facebook and Instagram visitors and followers from advertising. We don’t specifically advertise to get followers, but we invite those that react to our ads to follow us and many do. This also gives us the benefit of posting our services directly to those that we know have an interest in the practice, thereby saving money by not having to advertise as much.
Instagram skews younger than FB, so plan accordingly. You want to post as much as you can to these platforms. Check every day to see if you can respond to comments on your posts or ads that you have running. Remember, people can comment on your advertising in FB and Instagram, so don’t ignore them.
Always be helpful! Don't sell too hard. People want to be entertained, informed, and feel a connection with your practice. Test for posts that resonate and write more in that tone or on that subject. It may seem overwhelming in the beginning, but continued effort and a willingness to experiment are likely to get your practice surprisingly good results.
